A tabu search approach to strategic mobility mode selection

Mathematical and Computer Modelling, 2004

The complexity of military logistics and force deployment modeling requires the use of advanced computer models for analysis. The last 20 years have not only seen a concerted effort to improve the fidelity of these models, but development to improve their interconnectivity. The area of strategic mobility has received greater interest in the last decade as the U.S. Military has become more reliant on a force projection posture rather than prepositioning its forces outside the continental United States. Strategic mobility describes how forces within the continental U.S. are deployed in support missions outside the continental U.S. This posture combined with the ever shrinking military budget and force size has placed increased emphasis on the capability to efficiently deploy personnel, equipment, and support materiel. Mobility modeling is conducted at various levels of the mobility planning process. The result is a myriad of models addressing different aspects of the process. Current models addressing strategic mobility use aggregate network flow models, one-pass greedy approaches, and simple bounding techniques. This paper presents an overview of these models, their operating characteristics, and their advantages and disadvantages for mobility modeling applications. (~) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

2009

2006

Acknowledgement of Support and Disclaimer: This materiel is based upon work supported by the Office of Naval Research under Contract No. N00014-06-C-0060. Any opinions, findings and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this materiel are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Office of Naval Research. DISTRIBUTION STATEMENT A. Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited. a. This statement may be used only on unclassified technical documents that have been cleared for public release by competent authority in accordance with DoD Directive 5230.9. Technical documents resulting from contracted fundamental research efforts will normally be assigned Distribution Statement A, except for those rare and exceptional circumstances where there is a high likelihood of disclosing performance characteristics of military systems, or of manufacturing technologies that are unique and critical to Defense, and agreement on this situation has been recorded in the contract or grant. b. Technical documents with this statement may be made available or sold to the public and foreign nationals, companies, and governments, including adversary governments, and may be exported. c. This statement may not be used on technical documents that formerly were classified unless such documents are cleared for public release in accordance with DoD Directive 5230.9. d. This statement shall not be used on classified technical documents or documents containing export-controlled technical data as provided in DoD Directive 5230.25.

2010

I wish to thank my advisor, Keith Clarke, for many years of helpful advice and patience as this project evolved. Early in my graduate career, I developed, with Andrea Nuernberger, a navigation system for a wearable computer. Over time, I began to appreciate the differences in the ways in which people not only wish to interact with such a system, but also differences in the ways that people prefer to travel. As the project shifted from interface and interaction to concerns of strategy, Keith remained supportive. Dan Montello and Reg Golledge were highly influential in the development of the work as well, and I owe them a debt of gratitude. Dan always had valuable suggestions regarding theory and methodology that made the project much stronger than it would otherwise have been. Reg Golledge was an original member of my committee, but unfortunately passed away several months before the completion of the work. I would very much have liked him to see the outcome of the route asymmetry project in particular, since the inspiration for that study came from his work. I hope he would have liked how it turned out. Mary Hegarty and Martin Raubal gave me valuable suggestions and encouragement on the project as well, and their contributions are much appreciated. The indoor search study owes a great deal to Victor Schinazi, a friend whom I met while he was visiting UCSB several years ago. Together, we conceived of and ran the indoor search study that was instrumental in putting my first ideas regarding strategy to the test. He also quite graciously read some early drafts of the dissertation v and provided some excellent comments that led to a stronger work. I also very much appreciate Julie Dillemuth and Drew Dara-Abrams for their willingness to talk over many of these ideas over the past few years. The final year of my study was generously funded by the University of California Transportation Center (UCTC). This financial assistance was enormously beneficial in allowing me to devote my full attention to the project. Finally I wish to thank my friends and family. Without their love and support, none of this would have been possible. They were always willing to discuss my ideas on the project, read drafts, look at figures, and all the other innumerable things that go into a work like this. Even better-we always had a lot of fun. So to Kellie, Chris, and all my other Santa Barbara friends: thanks for everything these past few years. I really couldn't have done this without you. To Dad, Mom, Adam, Allison and Kevin-I hope I've done you proud.

2001

UU 18. NUMBER OF PAGES 206 19b. TELEPHONE NUMBER (Include area code)

2016

The NATO Reference Mobility Model (NRMM) is a simulation tool aimed at predicting the capability of a vehicle to move over specified terrain conditions. NRMM was developed and validated by the U.S. Army Tank Automotive Research, Development, and Engineering Center (TARDEC) and Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) in the 1960s and '70s, and has been revised and updated through the years, resulting in the most recent version, NRMM v2.8.2b. It was originally used to facilitate comparison between vehicle design candidates by assessing the mobility of existing vehicles under specific terrain scenarios, but has subsequently and most recently found expanded use in support of complex decision analyses associated with vehicle acquisition and operational planning support. This paper summarizes recent efforts initiated under a NATO Exploratory Team (ET) and its follow-on Research Technical Group (RTG) to upgrade this key modeling and simulation tool and the planned path forward toward implementing the recommendations of that team.

Transportation in the New Millennium, 2000

Recent closure or loss of overseas bases and assets now requires a greater dependence on deploying forces from the continental United States (CONUS), thus requiring efficient deployment planning. At the same time, widely scattered and increasingly numerous lowscale operations result in a greater pace of military deployments than ever before. Deploying from home station directly into theaters together with resupply and sustainment presents a highly complicated problem in military logistics that demands the application of appropriate technologies. In the civilian world, technology and advanced logistics concepts have greatly increased transportation efficiency and capacity. The Department of Defense's (DoD's) theater commanders in chief (CINCs) have recognized the emergence of the new technologies and now routinely demand constant updates and estimates on when the "forces will close." Furthermore, the Wal-Mart approach to resupply and sustainment is becoming the norm. In most military operations, early deployment cargo moves on military assets. Although these early movements may account for only a small portion of the total, they are often the most critical. Still, most military cargo, personnel, and war-fighting assets now move on commercial assets. For example, more than 95 percent of the equipment and cargo shipped in Desert Shield and Desert Storm moved on commercial carriers. Because of this, DoD instituted agreements with commercial carriers to ensure asset availability when needed. However, in an era of increasing need for military augmentation, competitive pressures have reduced civilian excess capacity and increased the need for closer coordination between the military and civilian carriers. Civilian-sector efficiency improvements result from the rapidly increasing use of technology to identify, track, and quickly locate cargo and shipments. For example, global positioning systems are now commonplace in the commercial trucking industry. The military sector needs to adopt these commercial successes more rapidly. Many disciplines are available to improve the planning and execution of military deployments, such as information technology and computers; communications; network flow models; operations research and logistics science; design of lift assets; demand reduction; and vehicle scheduling, routing, and monitoring. Many military transportation problems are being addressed by commercial companies or are the subject of research in universities and national laboratories. Because of the military's conservative nature, the research community has the lead in developing and

PsycEXTRA Dataset, 2000

2006

: This report describes the capabilities of the ICODES (Integrated Computerized Deployment System) and TRANSWAY suite of tools in the logistical domain, as part of California State University, Long Beach Foundation's Strategic Mobility 21 (SM21) program. It addresses in particular the suitability of these tools for supporting an end-to-end military deployment exercise that is scheduled to occur within the Southern California public transportation corridor sometime in the first half of 2007. In support of this planned exercise the ontology-based intelligent agents of the ICODES-TRANSWAY adaptive toolset will be able to assist operators in the staging of cargo in marshalling yards, the load-planning of cargo onto multiple conveyance types (i.e., trucks, railcars, and ships), and the planning and re-planning of delivery plans along alternative surface routes and air channels within a geo-spatial reference frame.